Like us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterWatch us on YouTubeEmail our adviser

Tennis Grows in Popularityby Grace Bryson

I have played tennis for a really long time, and getting a school-sanctioned team at WHS would be amazing. Spreading the word is important, but because tennis is not officially a sport at WHS yet, I knew I would have to portray this topic in a way that promoted the sport, but yet not build up too much "hope" it could be added to the WHS sports listings. This wasn't too difficult to do because tennis is growing in popularity in our community.

In August, a couple of meetings and gatherings were held for girls who had interest in the sport. I wanted to interview a couple of the girls who went to those meetings, and hear their opinions about why they think it would be a good addition to have at our school.

I also knew that I wanted to share a perspective outside of the school. Elizabeth Barker is the JV Girls Tennis coach at Westminster Christian Academy, and she gave a great interview. She shared the benefits of tennis that she has seen as a coach, as well as playing tennis throughout her life.

Samantha Torti also offered to let me interview her. She talked about how playing tennis in high school has helped her in different aspects of being an athlete and student.

For b-roll, I went to Sunset Tennis Center, where I play tennis during the week, and filmed the high school clinic, and high school tennis players. There were also many pictures and graphics of the meetings held for high school girls interested in tennis.

I slated and logged my interviews and began to write my script. It came together really well because of the detail people gave in their interviews. I could tell that the sport is something that they are passionate about.

I was nervous about the editing process. As a first-year member of BJJTV, it is the process that I am most unfamiliar with. I don’t completely know what I am doing yet. I laid out the interview clips and slowly added in some of the b-roll overtop. My adviser, MT, helped me out a lot with adding in b-roll where it is necessary, and utilizing the natural sound of the players, hits, and tennis courts. She helped show me when the appropriate time is to add b-roll and NAT.

Overall, I am so proud of this story. It is the first story I produced all by myself, and it's my first year in BJJTV! It is a topic that I am excited about, and I am hopeful that WHS will get a tennis team soon. I really like how it turned out and am happy to share this story with our audience.